Discussing the concept of DISTAR (Direct Instructional System for Teaching and Remediation) program, the use of phonics to teach children to read, and interviewing Joe Rosen, Betsy Clayton, and Jim First.

His background as a chaplain prepared Dean Joe Matthews for his role at the Ecumenical Institute of Chicago. Here, he discusses what it means to be human and to truly live one's life.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

Terkel comments and presents music written by Joe Hill and sung by Chris Farrell

Blackey, Kentucky resident, Joe Begley, is all for deep mining and totally against strip mining. Rattlesnakes, explained Begley, are those individuals who come in from other states to destroy the land with their strip mining. Begley also talks about the poor and illiterate of Appalachia, some of whom will get Black lung disease from the coal mines.

"Waves at Genji's Door: Japan Through Its Cinema," includes Joan Mellen's study of Japanese film, Japanese history and Japanese culture. Some of Mellen's topics include Akira Kurosawa's films, Samurais and the ritual suicide of Seppuku.

Discussing the book, 'Uncommon Women', published in 1981. The book chronicles the lives of Gwendolyn Brooks, Julie Harris, Sarah Caldwell, Maria Tallchief, Alice Neel, Mary McCarthy, Eugenia Zukerman, Roberta Peters, and Mary Lou Williams, discussing the impressive things they have accomplished in their respective professions ranging from poetry, to opera, to literature, and art and abstraction.

Joan Didion describes the main characters Charlotte and Charlotte's ex-husbands, Warren and Leonard of her novel, "A Book of Common Prayer". Didion said she based her novel from the song, "If I Ever Cease to Love You". A fan of Didion, who after reading her novel, made the comparison and asked Didion, "So you knew my ex-husband, too?"

Interviewing at the Salisbury Pub with the very "u" girl at the establishment (part 2) with a cleaning lady's reply to the "very 'u' girl" while Studs was in England.

Joan Cook discusses her book "In Defense of Homo Sapiens" and talks about research done by other scientists working with Chimps and other primates. She explains her stance that not all humans lean towards violence and that nature, not nurture, and the environment creates aggression and violence. The conversation compares economics and Darwinism for a view of humanistic economics.

Joan Chase discusses and reads from her book "During the Reign of the Queen of Persia: a Novel." This book is told from the perspective of four granddaughters of an Ohio farm wife during the 1950s and is broken into three parts that follow these women throughout their life recounting family stories and the struggles of rural life in modern America. Studs plays "Down in the Valley" - Pete Seeger, Bess Lomax, and Tom Glazer (1951), "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" - Kai Winding & J.J. Johnson (1959), and "Frankie and Johnny" - Burl Ives (1955).

Joan Baez speaks with Studs Terkel about role of music and the responsibility of musicians in the specific historical moment of the late '60's.

Jo Freeman, Mary Jean Collins-Robson, and Naomi Weisstein discuss women's rights and the struggle for equal rights and liberation, resistance through art, and the fight for free childcare. Discussion continues with criticism on the male gaze and females as sexual objects.

Jo Freeman, Mary Jean Collins-Robson, and Naomi Weisstein discuss women's rights and the struggle for equal rights and liberation, Title VII, their support for NOW, the National Organization of Women, as well as the upcoming Women's Strike for Equality.